Fujfilm FinePix S5000 Zoom

Image Quality

All of the sample images in this
Review were taken using the default 6M 2,816 x 2,120 mode,
which gives an average image size of between 1.5Mb and 3Mb.

Noise

There are 3 ISO settings available on the Fujfilm FinePix S5000 Zoom,
but ISO 800 is only available at the 1M resolution setting.

ISO 200 (100% crop)

ISO 400 (100% crop)

ISO 800 (100% crop)

The noise levels look just about OK at ISO 200, but at ISO
400 and 800 red and blue artifacts are starting to appear.
The Fujfilm FinePix S5000 Zoom would really benefit from having an
ISO 100 setting.

Sharpening

Here are two 100% crops which have been Saved as Web - Quality
40 in Photoshop. The right-hand image has had some sharpening
applied in Photoshop. The out-of-the camera images, using
the default setting of Normal, are pretty sharp and don't
really benefit from sharpening during post-processing.

Original 100% Crop

Sharpened 100% Crop

File Quality

The Fujfilm FinePix S5000 Zoom has 4 different JPEG quality settings.
Here are some 100% crops which show the various file quality
settings.

2,816 x 2,120

2,048 x 1,536

1,600 x 1,200

1,280 x 960

Chromatic Aberrations

The Fujfilm FinePix S5000 Zoom generally coped well with chromatic
aberrations, except in very high-contrast situations. In the
first example shown below, the sun was just outside the top
of the frame, resulting in some purple fringing in the tree
branches. The second example is a little more worrying, as
the sun was positioned well outside the frame to the left
of the subject.

Overall Image Quality

In bright sunny conditions the Fujfilm FinePix S5000 Zoom delivered
very punchy, colourful images, as you can see from the samples
in the next section. They don't require much post-processing
or sharpening in a photo editing application like Photoshop.
The default 6M 2,816 x 2,120 pixel image size allows you to
create prints up to A3 in size. Noise is visible at the slowest
ISO setting of 200, whilst ISO 400 and 800 should only be
used if you don't have a tripod handy. Chromatic aberrations
in the form of purple fringing are largely avoided, although
in high-contrast situations they did appear. Overall a fairly
pleasing performance from the Fujfilm FinePix S5000 Zoom in terms
of image quality.